Tiny bloke next to El nenny in midfield is ferocious. Physically makes El Nenny look huge. Effort wise making him look lazy and slow.

With all due respect it was Saudi Arabia and for a fair old while Russia were a bloody mess as well.

Early days but Cavani repeating the same from the last world cup. Interesting tidbit from Schwartzer in the the aus commentary yesterday and he was saying that previous England squad players were telling him they were dreading being in camp and would have preferred to have been on holidays. Explains a lot and if Southgate has their attitude right then the young England squad may be up for it.

First glimpse of Torreira as he came on for Uruguay 3 mins from the end.

First impression is that he’s a midget. Second impression was the same.

Yep he's 5'6" or something. Although Kante is also technically in the midget category.

Kante has been the best midfielder in the EPL for the last 3 seasons - still pisses me off that he went for the same amount we paid for Xhaka.

Torreira didn’t have very long but size apart, he doesn’t look like another Kante. Hope I’m wrong.

Point taken. Except Everton and Leicester away the others beatable. I think last year was due to Wenger not having the team perform. I expect with a title or top 4 finish on the line, the squad will win 4 or 5 of those matches, the other 1 or 2 draws.

Saudia Arabia has never been world beaters internationally. They get in by playing smaller mid east countries with no talent. Saudi Arabia also has a population of African descent which adds some athelticsim to their squad the other mid east countries don't have. Getting past Oman, Kuwait, UAE, Baharain isn't much of a problem. Iran and to some extent Iraq can pose problems but they don't have to do much to get there.

Throw in playing the host country with the eyes of the world on you and its a recipe for a disastrous start.

I often wonder if any middle eastern country would boycott a match if Israel got in and they have to play each other?

He looks like a malnourished rat.

Thanks for sharing.

First real quality of the World Cup a cracker so far Portugal-Spain. Spanish dominant now with a great equaliser from Diego Costa.

Spain 3-2 up now and looking sensational. The scoreline flatters the Portuguese.

Wow. Ronaldo 3-3. What a great game.

It was all a bit mad. Soft peno. Foul by Costa for the first equaliser. The shot off the bar and the line and then the Portuguese defender's hand. Absolute howler from DeGea. Glorious volley by Koke. Dive by Ronaldo for the free kick and a superb strike, although I would question DeGea's positioning of the wall. And why oh why take Costa off?

A bit mad true but some glorious football by the Spanish. They look like serious contenders to me even though it was just the first game. A lot of fun and a great watch anyway.

Oh ya. Highly entertaining. I rated Spain as favourites before the tournament. I'd be less than convinced now. They played some lovely stuff but were wide open to counter attacks.

Only 4 games in, but there have been some cracking goals already.

This just shows you know *%^@ all about the Asian qualifying games. I would love to see the US turn up in some of these places in 45 degree temperatures with dodgy refs just like Australia do . Total cockhead

I am most impressed with Isco. His work rate is fantastic. 3-3 flatters Portugal. Early days though.

Hmm..not Özil, which actually makes some sense if I had to choose between the two.

https://www.90min.com/posts/6067276-una ... ref=1.html

Sadly I didn't bother watching the last quarter of an hour or so, as I had something more interesting to do like watching paint dry. Hence I missed Torreira. Uruguay looked very poor. Why didn't he start the game? Hopefully his being on the bench is explained by him not being 100% fit. Because if the reason was their coach not considering a fully fit Torreira to be good enough to be a starter, from what I saw of the Uruguay midfield I'm a little concerned.

Remember when the French side used to be stacked with our players. Hope Emery can return us to a position of strength. Not enough arsenal players at this World Cup.

Aussies about to start matches in 3 different sports. To the forum Aussies, good luck in the World Cup, hope you lose the cricket, and I'm neutral for the rugby.

I presume you weren't impressed with Xhaka getting a new contract? Talking of new contracts, Tottenham did very well in getting Kane to sign a six year one. Even if he leaves before it's up, it surely guarantees them a huge transfer fee.

Actually I think it’s quite good as recently we have struggled to get our players tied to contracts and let them go on the cheap.

I still have my reservations about him as a player and it will be interesting to see how he fares under a new manager. Jack Wilshere is about to Join palace apparently so there will be much change next year.

God this France game is watching paint dry

After a slightly ominous first five minutes, Oz have been very comfortable and France very ordinary. The French could do with getting Matuidi and Giroud on the pitch.

Yeah oz organised in defence but very little going forward. France are a shambles at the.moment and there appears to be no cohesiveness to their play.

That's a shame. Very harsh pen. And I hate VAR.

I think that can be said about various players I see as Wengerised. Look, I'm not saying Mustafi should be kept, but it wouldn't shock me if even he improves under Emery.

1-1 cmon Aussies

Pretty proud of the boys & if we play well in other games we can pick up points. France will need to improve substantially as they didn’t create much until Giroud spread us around. On this performance they are not going to win it. Hope France see they need to put in big efforts in the next 2 group games & score heaps of goals.

What was clear was that a good coach can really improve a side defensively in a short time. We were terrible defensively in the group qualifying matches but we did really well after he came on board. Let us hope it is replicated at Arsenal.

I heard there was almost a fight with one of the Aussie players when they saw one of the France players the day before out with his mother and he greeted her 'hey Mother Fekir"

I'll get my coat..

My initial reaction is I don't like Xhaka's contract renewed. I'm hoping Emery can make him more useful considering his lackings. I'm hoping the videos of his shot are what convinced them. He needs to work on those shots in training and we employ them in matches.

Definitely structure and the team knowing what was expected. Need more in attack though.

Next match....
Is it just me but does Messi look like a hyena?

Argentina totally dominant and then 1-1. Brilliant.

On Wilshere leaving I never thought be had the vision of Fabregas and although he has a lot of fight, his injuries have slowed down any technical or physical progress. Let him go I say but as usual due to the contract mismanagement we'll get *%^@ all for him.

Argentina are all over the place at the back. They have all the possession but are giving up chances out of nothing.

Now that I think about it this must have been the reason I didn't get into Harvard and Cambridge.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/mor ... am-school/

France dominated possession but didn't seem impressive against a very average Aussie squad.

Indeed. Costa really does round of Spain nicely. Absurd though it was that the foul wasn't given, one can only admire Costa's pace, power, and skill on the first goal. One of my favourite players. I was most impressed with Isco and the way that Nacho put his error behind him and turned in stellar performance. In fact, Spain looked almost perfect yesterday, aside from the two Ronaldo sucker-punches and the de Gea error.

Yes, that is the one worry about their play. But didn't most of those counter-attacks come when they were looking for an equaliser?